Microsoft product is also Warwickshire engine distributor

MICROSOFT HAS done it again by naming its web storage service Windows Live SkyDrive, co-opting a name already in currency.

But this time it's unlikely that the case will end up in a multimillion dollar judgement or have any of the newsworthiness of Intel's attempts to protect the 486 brand or Microsoft's controversial trademarking of Windows.

As well as being the latest product name from the world's largest software vendors, SkyDrive, or SKYDRIVE to be precise, is also a UK company that distributes aircraft engines.

When told of the coincidence, managing director Nigel Beale said: "Well, I don't know anything about that and we've been an official, limited company with that name for the last 10 years. When we registered it, there weren't any others with that name. We thought, well, engines drive planes through the sky so we'll call it SKYDRIVE.”

So how would Nigel feel if Redmond, Washington came to Southam, Warwickshire bearing bags of cash?

"Well, it would be nice, wouldn't it?"

We Brits will never get the hang of this American litigious thing.

Of course, the Internet has meant that it's harder than ever to have a name that nobody else has already grabbed. That situation has led to many companies using made-up monikers, often of cringe-making mediocrity and demonstrating the deep thought processes of a fence post. Think Agilent, Spirent, Accenture and pretty well anything beginning with ‘A' and ending with ‘A', quite possibly with some raised capitals for extra annoyance. µ